1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to digital rights management and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for avoiding license storming during an unplanned regional blackout.
2. Description of the Related Art
Broadcasters often deliver media on networks using Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) streaming solutions such as HTTP Dynamic Streaming (HDS), HTTP live streaming (HLS) and Dynamic Adaptive streaming for HTTP (MPEG-DASH) to take advantage of HTTP Content Delivery Network (CDN) capabilities, efficient seeking and efficient bit rate shifting so as to enable a rich user experience. To protect their media streams from unauthorized access, broadcasters use various available digital rights management (DRM) solutions, such as ADOBE® Access that require an encryption key to decrypt protected content. The encryption key is provided to users who meet certain criteria so as to enable decryption of each segment of the protected content being streamed.
One aspect of DRM solutions includes provisions for changing the encryption key in order to enforce a regional blackout. A regional blackout occurs when a part of a live media stream is to be prevented, that is, barred from broadcast in one or more geographic regions, for example, for regulatory or governmental reasons. When such a blackout occurs without preparation, that is, it is unplanned, the encryption key is abruptly changed. In response, every media player that is currently rendering the protected content must then request the new key from a license server. Only requests from media players that are not in blackout regions are provided with the new encryption key so as to enforce the regional blackout. However, this technique is undesirable since it places a heavy request load on the license server for new encryption keys, such heavy request load being known as license storming.
Therefore, there is a need for a method and apparatus for avoiding license storming during an unplanned regional blackout.